Dear Diary: February 2016

Februarys been a weird old month. I’ve been focusing really hard on work, and had a couple of (lovely) weekends away, so I’ve just been treading water with everything else, keeping myself ticking over till I can set my fitness goals March 2016.

Mostly I feel pretty positive. I’m feeling strong, and ready to start spending some time working more on speed and explosive power for the next couple of months.

At the start of the month we began a fitness challenge with Norfolk Roller Derby, there are daily challenges, which I have fallen a little behind on, and a fitness test that we will retake at the end of the challenge to assess our improvement based on our recovery heart rate. I completed the test in 4 minutes 18 seconds (I didn’t do enough reps, but as long as I repeat it the same way it doesn’t matter). To improve I’m going to have to work on a lot more jumping around stuff during March, so that’s where my focus is going to be.

In March I have a Roller Derby game coming up this weekend, a Sur5al tournament at the end of the month, and the Trowse 10k rolls around again on Easter Sunday.

February Achievements

Februarys goals were about as much of a bust as I expected. I only ran 10.3 miles, not 20, due to those weekends away and the fact I managed to injure my leg. We didn’t win our first game of the season, though we put up a hell of a fight and unsurprisingly I forgot about my mobility exercises half way through the month as I got distracted, by, er, other stuff.

I did, however, manage to squat my bodyweight. In fact I got a 3 rep max of 75kg in a test at the gym, so I’m pretty chuffed with that.

I also jammed a few times, not only at our practice scrims, but at co-ed scrim and I managed to not get lead and not die (those are normally my choices, get lead and call the jam off before I die, or end up stuck, forget to breathe and die)

Photo courtesy of NeartheCoast

Fitness Goals March 2016

So, it’s about time I started doing my goals properly, with end and process goals, so. In March

Complete the Trowse 10 in under 1 hour 3 minutes 50 seconds

That was last years time, and even though I have seriously slacked on the running front, I’d really like to beat it. I have a really short time to train so my process goals are:

• 1 long run a week, 5-6 miles
• 1 speed run a week, intervals or fartlek

Improve my Fitness test recovery times

I have 4 weeks left of the fitness test, and it’s time for some serious effort to bring that recovery time down and improve my fitness!

• Get back on the Kayla Itsines BBG program twice a week
• Add Plyometrics at the end of strength sessions 2 x a week that’s 3 exercises 3 sets of 8

Eat Better

Yeah, that’s a wishy washy goal, but in February I stopped keeping a food diary and went away a lot, and my meal planning has started to slide. So in March I plan to

• Keep a food diary 6 days out of 7
• Plan meals the day before 6 days out of 7